DAQ, Testing & Sensors

INSIDER: Aerospace

Creating the Future: A Better Way to Map Terrain

Mark Skoog, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, led the development of new software that stores terrain data in a more efficient and accurate way. The...

INSIDER: Defense

AMRDEC Technologies to Improve Air and Missile Defense

Engineers at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) are working on a trio of technologies to explore improving existing air and...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Drop of Mock Nuclear Weapon Is First of New Flight Tests

From a distance, the drop of a mock nuclear weapon — containing only non-nuclear components — was a mere puff of dust rising from a dry lake bed at Nevada’s Tonopah Test...

INSIDER: Data Acquisition

New System Assists X-Planes with Super-Fast Data Transmission

A network and communication architecture that can more efficiently move data from research aircraft, while using half the bandwidth of traditional methods, could eventually...

Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics

Fast-Tracking Autonomous Vehicles with Simulation

Artificial intelligence developments are set to fundamentally transform mobility, whether it is mobility of weapon payloads, supply deliveries, urban commuters, warehouse goods,...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

NASA Tests Robotic Ice Tools

Since 2015, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has been developing new technologies for use on future missions to ocean worlds. That includes a subsurface probe that could burrow...

INSIDER: Aerospace

Heated Concrete Could Pave the Way for Ice-Free Runways

Iowa State University tested slabs of electrically conductive concrete at Des Moines International Airport. The test slabs are made up of 1 percent carbon fiber and a special mix of...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

NASA Puts Dummies to the Test for Airplane Safety

Ten crash test dummies buckled into seats in a cut-out section of a regional jet fuselage will soon help NASA and the FAA develop new crashworthiness guidelines for future airplane...

INSIDER: Aerospace

Report from SPIE 2017: Drones Spot Gas Leaks from the Sky

ANAHEIM, CA. During last week’s SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2017 conference, panelists from industry, academia, and government demonstrated how miniaturized sensing platforms,...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Sandia Labs Takes Modern Approach to Evaluating Nuclear Weapons

Sandia National Laboratories is transforming how it assesses nuclear weapons in a stockpile made up of weapons at different stages in their lifecycles — some systems that have...

INSIDER: Data Acquisition

Next-Generation Fire Support Systems Boost Lethality

Soldiers view live-stream full-motion video from unmanned aerial vehicles via a smartphone. They access 3-D digital maps to send precision target coordinates. Soldiers are now relying on...

Articles: Data Acquisition

Pulse Analysis Techniques for Radar and Electronic Warfare

Pulsed signals are widespread in radar and other electronic warfare (EW) applications, and they must be accurately measured for manufacturing, design of countermeasures, and threat...

Briefs: Defense

Luminescence Materials as Nanoparticle Thermal Sensors

The purpose of this research program was to create and study novel luminescence particles (phosphors} capable of sensing and retaining the time-temperature information to which they were...

Briefs: Defense

Using Dempster-Shafer Fusion for Personnel Intrusion Detection

The Dempster-Shafer (D-S) mass function is used in effect as a common representation of heterogeneous sensor data. In order to cast each data source in this form, first the raw...

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Development of an Optically Modulated Scatterer Probe for a Near-Field Measurement System

Near-field radiation patterns are useful in diagnosing antenna array defects, measuring far-field antenna patterns where the far-field is prohibitively...

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Angular Random Walk Estimation of a Time-Domain Switching Micromachined Gyroscope

The primary metrics that prohibit the use of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscopes for navigation-grade inertial navigation units (IMUs) are angle...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

New Lab Helps Boeing Detect Aircraft Flaws

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology and The Boeing Company established a new nondestructive evaluation (NDE) laboratory that uses millimeter-wave technology to improve...

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Open Standard Middleware Enables New HPEC Solutions

The military embedded computing landscape has been transformed from where it was 20 years ago — and that has been almost entirely enabled by the ability of prime contractors, systems...

Articles: Test & Measurement

Simulating and Analyzing Flow for an Air-to-Air Refueling System

Long-range bombers may have missions halfway around the world. Fighter jets may have to stay in the air longer than their relatively small fuel tanks will allow, or may find...

INSIDER: Defense

Laser-Based Navigation Sensor Could be Standard for Planetary Landing Missions

A laser-guided navigation sensor that could help future rovers make safe, precise landings on Mars or destinations beyond was developed at NASA’s Langley...

Articles: RF & Microwave Electronics

Using High Bandwidth Oscilloscopes to Analyze Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems

Whether for multi-channel analysis, or for wider analysis bandwidth in a measurement, high bandwidth oscilloscopes offer an alternative to traditional...

Articles: Defense

Bio-inspired Airborne Infrastructure Reconfiguration (BioAIR)

Conventionally, most autonomous mobile nodes, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are operated remotely by human operators. As such, forming a mobile communication network...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Air Force Is Developing Mach 18 Wind Tunnel

The Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 team is conducting tests in support of risk reduction for a new test capability that will be revolutionary for AEDC...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

Software Gives Bomb Techs X-Ray Vision

In the chaos that followed the terrorist attack at the 2013 Boston Marathon, bomb squads scanned packages at the scene for explosive devices. Two homemade pressure cooker bombs had killed three...

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Portable 3D Scanner

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence (North Kingstown, RI) has released the new Leica Absolute Scanner LAS-20-8, a portable laser scanner for large volume inspection applications such as automotive sheet metal, aerospace...

Articles: Data Acquisition

Fiber Optic Multi-Sensing Platforms

Eventually, technology advances to the point where solutions that have been “good enough” for decades are no longer “good enough” for the innovations of today. The philosophy of “good enough”...

INSIDER: Aerospace

Existing Navigation Data Can Help Pilots Avoid Turbulence

Detecting turbulence remains the Achilles' heel of modern-day aviation. The reports submitted by pilots, subjective and often very inaccurate, are the least expensive and the most...

INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Alternative Found for Nuclear Weapon Detection

One of the most critical issues the United States faces today is preventing terrorists from smuggling nuclear weapons into its ports. To this end, the U.S. Security and Accountability for...